The two year molars… Oy. Just. Oy. Or, in our case, the “21 month molars because LOL you thought you’d get until your baby was 2? That’s precious”.

Two year molars are just this giant practical joke. The other teeth, it was one giant roller coaster ride from start to finish. We were constantly in teething mode. Sure, we’d get a week or two respite, but the pre-teething pain started at 2 months and continued until the final molar cut around 12 months. And then… nothing. We grew accustomed to life without teething.

Then, a few months ago, the pre-teething started up again. Drooling. Crying. Swollen gums. Diarrhea.

In the last month, teething has started back in with a vengeance. Late night My Little Pony marathons because nothing else will distract our toddler from the pain. Being woken up to ear-piercing screams when the pain medicine wears off. We better have had another one cut last night because otherwise- we are so screwed.

On top of that is the new behavior problems. Before, our toddler was not nearly mobile or dextrous or tall enough to cause problems. Now, teething brings with it major destructive impulses. Throwing things to the floor, pulling things off the table, trying to destroy the baby gates. We are currently facing what I can only imagine is the non-verbal “NO” phase. Where once we could ask our toddler to give us something, now they run the opposite direction. Our toddler no longer listens, and is completely without the words to tell us if they want anything else.

This is one of those times that having a non-verbal toddler sucks. If our requests were met with a firm ‘NO!’, we would’ve immediately known we were in the ‘no’ stage. Instead our first worry is “Have our toddler’s language skills regressed?” “”Is something actually wrong with their hearing?”.